Mexico’s Raul Pereda fulfills two dreams in ascent to PGA TOUR

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Raul Pereda knows the texts are coming. He will get one after a made cut, a three-putt or when he bogeys a par 5.

On this Wednesday morning in February, as Pereda started the day in his Ponte Vedra Beach apartment, the latest message read: “What time will I see you today, honey?” Pereda gets a lot of these texts, too.

They aren’t coming from his brother, coach or manager, though the sender can fit any of those descriptions at any moment. On the other end of those messages is Jeff Klauk, former PGA TOUR member-turned-mentor and Pereda’s best friend.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Pereda greeted Klauk. “Are you ready? Are you looking pretty today?”

“Eventually,” Klauk quipped.

When Pereda is home, this is how most days start – a quick breakfast and a workout, then a check-in with Klauk, typically in that order. Klauk is slow in the mornings, a side effect of his epilepsy medication.

Separated by nearly two decades, Pereda, 27, and Klauk, 46, are bonded by their shared pursuits of the PGA TOUR. Pereda’s journey just started. Klauk’s was cut short by circumstances out of his control. From that shared foundation, a mutually uplifting relationship has bloomed – an outlet for one to grow and one to heal and for both men’s ambitions to live on.

Pereda will proudly make his third start as a TOUR member this week at his home country’s event, the Mexico Open at Vidanta. Friends and family will be on-site to cheer him on, but his biggest cheerleader will be back in Northeast Florida. Klauk will have his television and phone ready.

“You can tell he's living his dream back and through me now,” Pereda said. “I’m not doing this for him. I’m doing this for myself. But I’m just so glad someone in my inner circle of people is appreciating and valuing what I’m doing more than anybody else.”

One of those classic Klauk check-ins came after the final round of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry’s Second Stage last December. Pereda thought he squandered his chance to make Final Stage after a back-nine bogey dropped him outside the cut line. It took a Klauk text for Pereda to realize that two late bogeys from his competitors had allowed him to qualify.

Pereda parlayed that into a PGA TOUR card two weeks later at Final Stage, adeptly maneuvering around Dye’s Valley at TPC Sawgrass, a course Pereda played dozens of times as a standout golfer at Jacksonville University. He chipped in twice in his final-round 69 to earn his TOUR card by one shot. Klauk walked every hole and was there to celebrate as Pereda came off the 18th green. The two men hugged and cried.

Klauk knew more than most what that moment meant. That was once him. He still dreams of getting back to the PGA TOUR. In reality, his body robbed him of that chance long ago.

Klauk was on the Korn Ferry Tour when he experienced his first seizure in June 2006. He was diagnosed with epilepsy soon after. Klauk managed the condition well enough to earn his PGA TOUR card for the first time in 2009 and thrived as a rookie, amassing $1.24 million in earnings with three top-10s and a T14 at THE PLAYERS Championship. But just as his career took off, he was derailed again. Klauk had another seizure in the offseason, which, combined with other non-related injuries, limited him to 29 starts across the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour in 2010 and 2011. He underwent countless tests and multiple surgeries to thwart the issues. It didn’t work well enough for long enough. Klauk failed to earn enough in eight major medical starts in 2013 and lost his PGA TOUR card.

“It's been a battle because you've got to get the medicine so adjusted and everything,” said Klauk, who last played on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2015. “I wasn't able to get them under control.”

Klauk has every reason to be bitter. He spent years working to get to the PGA TOUR, only for an outside force to squander it as he reached the pinnacle. His relationship with golf could easily be jaded. Klauk’s mind doesn’t go there.

“The Lord let me live my dream of at least playing in THE PLAYERS, which was always number one as a kid," Klauk said. "So I can't complain about things. That's why I just love helping (Pereda) because, you know, now he can live his dream.”

Their friendship is unexpected on the surface. By age, Klauk could be Pereda’s father. Klauk turned pro when Pereda was 4. Their backgrounds are wildly different. Klauk grew up steps from the Dye’s Valley course as the son of the TPC Sawgrass superintendent. Rocco Mediate and Vijay Singh mentored him. He was destined to be a golfer. Pereda grew up in Cordoba, Mexico, and split time between basketball, tennis, swimming, soccer and golf. That he chose to pursue golf had more to do with his spindly frame (5-foot-9-inches, 140 pounds) than any upbringing. Yet, they see a lot of themselves in each other.

Pereda is used to being doubted. Overlooked by the University of Florida — his dream school — Pereda opted for Jacksonville. He turned pro in 2018 and won his second start on the Professional Golf Tour of Mexico. “(I had) that greedy and arrogant thought of like, this is going to be so easy,” Pereda said.

Instead, he spent the next five years on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, consistently playing well enough to keep his card but never good enough to reach the Korn Ferry Tour. He was stuck. A feeling Klauk has felt all too often during his battle with epilepsy.

“Jeff was such a hard worker," Pereda said. "That was his talent."

Pereda saw that in 2013 when he met Klauk for the first time. Pereda was still a high schooler in Mexico, but the two shared an instructor at a local golf academy near Ponte Vedra Beach. Neither golfer was anywhere near the player they are now. Pereda was a kid, still a year away from moving to the U.S. for his freshman season at Jacksonville. Klauk had already lost his TOUR card but was charting a possible comeback. Focused on their own aspirations, the two saw each other occasionally but didn’t spend much time together.

Their relationship didn’t fully blossom until nearly a decade later when Pereda joined The Palencia Club in 2022, where Klauk is a long-standing member. That’s when Klauk started to see Pereda as a younger version of himself. He admired Pereda’s unrelenting drive. Pereda had a backup plan, but he didn’t want it. Their games were similar, too. Neither player hit it far, but every aspect of their game was solid. It took Klauk several years to break through to the PGA TOUR. Pereda was amid that battle, and Klauk wanted to give Pereda the same mentorship that he received from Mediate and Singh.

The advice was (and still is) wide-ranging. From how to putt the Poa annua greens on the West Coast to specific strategy on holes Pereda will play that week, their exchanges always feature a bit of sarcasm and self-deprecation.

“How the hell did you bogey that par 5? You're supposed to be making birdie every time,” Pereda said, mimicking Klauk’s voice.

“There's nothing worse than bogey on a par 5,” Klauk responded.

Most times, though, it’s life advice. Pereda bypassed the Korn Ferry Tour entirely with his Q-School finish. It’s a remarkable jump that comes with its challenges. The Korn Ferry Tour is often the crash course for younger players on managing their time and money. It was for Klauk. Pereda skipped that step. Klauk tries to fill in the gaps.

“Those dang stocks, man. He’s always watching that freaking stock channel and telling me about it,” Pereda said.

“There are so many things that pull you in different directions. You’ve just got to stay in your own little bubble,” Klauk said.

The effects have been much more personal for Klauk. Pereda is Klauk’s window into his past life — when epilepsy didn’t dominate the day-to-day. It invigorates and keeps him connected to the pro golf scene he loves. Klauk’s memory is spotty about most things, but it's crystal clear when he talks about his career. They play golf often when Pereda is home. Klauk passes the time rattling off story after story of his playing days. On days when they don’t play golf, Pereda will stop by Klauk’s house after working out. Pereda cherishes his role in Klauk’s everyday routine. Klauk can drive now, but for a long time, his epilepsy prohibited it. So Pereda stepped in.

“He would just take me someplace,” Klauk said.

Pereda has become an ingrained part of Klauk’s family. He advises Klauk’s son, Jackson, a freshman on the Jacksonville University golf team. It’s better coming from him, he said. Pereda knows Jackson won’t listen to his dad.

Pereda and Klauk are frequent dinner guests at each other’s homes and will show up unannounced.

“He'll just open the fridge, grab a beer and make himself at home,” Pereda said. “He loves me to death. And you know, I'm telling you, he calls me four times a day at least.”

Those calls are some of Pereda’s favorite moments of the day. Much of it is spent giving each other a hard time. Pereda will inevitably call him Jeffrey to get under his skin. The two will talk about golf and life. Pereda will ask Klauk how he’s feeling and how the meds are taking. Klauk will shrug it off and ask when he will see Pereda next.

“He keeps me younger,” Klauk said.

Pereda gets emotional talking about Klauk. Pereda’s journey has become Klauk’s, too. He knows it and embraces it. He’s just happy someone is along for the ride with him.

“Freaking Jeff always makes me cry,” Pereda said. “He was doing so good. He was just forced to quit. And as much as he wants to get back, he can't.”

But Klauk is back. He’s not hitting the shots anymore, but he’s with Pereda as he does. Klauk is there when Pereda plays a pitch shot that Klauk taught him, or when Pereda sinks a putt on the bumpy poa annua greens that Klauk prepped him for. He will be in his mind at the Mexico Open this week.

As they hit balls at Palencia’s back range on that February Wednesday, a common activity for the two of them, Klauk looked over to Pereda. “You’ve got a great team around you, man.”

“You are part of it,” Pereda jumped in.

“Well, I try. I have some good coffee for you,” Klauk retorted.

“You have done a lot more than that,” Pereda said.